Avatar: 17 Years Later
by Midnyghtchilde
Summary: 17 Years after the fall of Ozai & the world is rebuilding. When the new Avatar is murdered old friends must reunite to keep the peace & discover who is behind it. Meanwhile, 2 women wash up on the fire nation shore who & what are they?


**A.N. _5-17-07_**_ - This is a teaser prologue for a story idea I have. It is set many years down the line in the Avatar World; the cannon characters are all adults now, mostly in their mid-thirties. The only cannon pairing here is Sokka and Suki, as it is in the show, all others are paired with my own character creations. I'll let the story tell the rest. If you like it, please review, reviews will determine if this story is continued or not.  
_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's property of Nickelodeon. But unrecognizable characters are most likely mine, such as the two unnamed girls, and the spouses and children of cannon characters.**_

* * *

**Prologue**

_17 Years after the Eclipse and the defeat of Ozai, 16 years after the end of the 100 Year War and the death of Avatar Aang._

_Somewhere along the Southern Fire Nation Shores_

The ocean is choppy with waves; a brisk breeze whips the water into frothy white caps a mile from shore. Two bodies float on its inky black surface, arms entwined and fingers locked together to keep them from drifting apart. Long pale gray tresses swirl in the water, lapping against their faces. Their eyes are closed. Their wet red shirts cling to curves of their bodies: two young women.

The waves bring them to shore, inch by excruciating inch. They do not move on their own, they only move as the water pushes and pulls them. Along the black sand beach of the volcanic island, the waves finally push them to land.

For moments they still do not move. They lay on the sand, the water licking at their legs and their backs every time a wave breaks and slides upwards and then back into the sea.

One girl's fingers flex slightly. At first it is dismissible, perhaps an illusion of the imagination or the tug of some small insect. They bend again, and now her arm moves. She groans softly, and dares to prod her sister in the side.

**-----------------------------------**

_Meanwhile, in the City of the Northern Water Tribe_

The sun is not up, but the people are. They pace back and forth, across the central square of the large city. It is lit by torches that line the walkways. The firelight makes the snow sparkle like a bed of gems. The city has grown a lot in the past decade and a half, repairing the damages of the siege of the north and expanding as trade once again returned to the North Pole.

It is unusual for people to be awake before dawn here, but this is an unusual situation. So they are all awake, or in many cases, have not gone to sleep yet.

From a medium sized building made of snow and ice, an old woman emerges. She pushes back the animal hide that serves as a door and is almost instantly surrounded by people. They all murmur the same questions – "Is she alright? Did she make it? Who did it? What happened?"

The old woman's wrinkles are deepened by her frown. Her dark blue eyes sparkle with tears that she does not let fall.

"She is dead," she states softly, her voice wavering with sorrow. "She is dead."

The crowds begin to wail and cry, and the old woman ducks back inside the building.

**-----------------------------------**

_One week later, in the Fire Nation Capital – Sozin City_

"The Avatar is dead?" The Fire Lord stares at the parchment in his hand with shock and disbelief. It has just arrived in the talons of a messenger hawk sent from the South Pole.

"That's what it says, sir," His assistant and best friend responds quietly. "I thought it best to bring it to you immediately. I thought it would be worth the interruption of your work."

The Fire Lord nods slowly. He sits at his desk, and it is covered in stacks of parchment and scrolls. Running a country takes a lot of paperwork. The desk is massive and made of a rich red cherry wood, ornately carved with figures depicting the story of Agni. It has sat in the same room for centuries and seen many Fire Lords.

He re-reads the parchment once more, shaking his head slowly. His hands tremble faintly and the parchment shakes in response. For the second time in his life, the Fire Lord is hearing of the death of an Avatar. "I can't believe it Daiyu. Who would murder a child?" Although he asks, he can imagine a few people wicked enough to do it, but they are long since dead and gone.

"I felt the same upon first reading it. This does not herald anything good, that's for certain. What do you intend to do, Zuko?" Daiyu stands with his hands folded behind his back. He has known the Fire Lord for 16 years now, since Azula was removed from the throne. He was picked by Iroh to be Zuko's assistant and confidant, and the two men have forged a strong friendship.

Zuko has no need for titles with personal friends behind closed doors. Titles are for bragging which need not be done around friends. "First I need to contact some old friends, while you get me as much information as possible on what exactly happened at the North Pole."

With a nod, Daiyu retreats, closing the massive oaken doors behind him, and leaving Zuko to his thoughts.

**-----------------------------------**

_Meanwhile, in the Southern Fire Nation Village of Saijin_

"I think it was a ghost!"

"No, it was a spirit!"

"What's the difference?"

"What does it want?"

"Why is it here?"

The village's small population is gathered in the market. For the third night in a row, the winds have howled and shrieked, and a creature has dashed through the town. It moves as fast as the wind itself, and no one can see what it is. It does not stay long, a few minutesat most. It whistles as it dashes once through the village and then it is gone. The first night, a basket of apples was missing, on the second night, it was a blanket, and tonight, it is a stack of notices and news from the capital from the magistrate's office.

In the distance, the villagers can hear the eerie howl of the wind as it whips through the trees. They crowd in the market place and gossip to ease their fears.

**-----------------------------------**

_One week later, in the Earth Kingdom City of Gaoling_

"You have a letter, Lady Beifong."

"Yeah, yeah, who's it from?" Toph brushes off the servant with a wave of her hand. She is in the courtyard of a fairly large house, practicing her bending. The courtyard itself is huge, and nothing but a plain field of grass – with so much earth bending, nothing can really grow there. The house is classic earth kingdom style, stone walls rising from the ground as a testament to the earth benders who built it.

"It's from the Fire Lord, M'lady."

Toph rolls her eyes; she will never get used to titles, even though it's been well over a decade. At least she had kept her own last name when she married. It made a lot of people angry, but it wasn't like Toph cared. She's been married 8 years, to the surprise of her friends and joy of her parents, who never imagined her marrying at all. They are on peaceful terms now, even if they still do not accept that their 'little blind girl' is the most powerful earth bender in the world.

"Then give it here!"

The servant places the rolled scroll in Toph's hands, bows, and leaves. She wipes some sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her training shirt, leaving a giant smudge of dirt in its place. Her training clothes are a plain green tunic and black pants, simple and easy to move in. Toph is much taller now, but her long hair is still pulled up and back in her traditional bun; some things never change.

Her fingers run over the raised red wax seal of the Fire Nation and she grins. It's been months since she heard from Zuko. They have all gone their separate ways, becoming important players in the politics of their kingdoms. Normally, they only meet once a year at the Elemental Summit.

She opens the scroll; it's several times thicker than a normal piece of parchment, mostly because the letters are raised. After scripting the letter, Zuko had traced over his words carefully in wax, effectively raising them so that Toph can read it with her finger tips.

Her face falls as she reads the letter.

"GIRLS!" She clenches the scroll tightly in her hand. Two 6 year old girls come running from the house. They are identical twins, with long black hair and rich brown eyes. Toph can feel them running towards her and smiles; they're as rambunctious and loud as she is. They have just begun earth bending practice, and Toph can't help but brag to anyone who will listen.

"Yes Mom?" They skid to a halt, throwing up a bit of dirt, and laugh.

"I need to go away for a little while…"

**-----------------------------------**

_Outside the Southern Fire Nation Village of Saijin_

"Restrain them!"

Two girls stand back to back. One is an inch taller than the other. Her hair is shorter and pulled back in a loose bun, while the shorter sister has longer hair in a pony tail. They watch each others backs - literally.

They are surrounded by six Fire Nation soldiers, who encircle them. Four wield long swords while two stand ready with their hands.

"Fire benders," the taller girl hisses through her teeth. The red armor is unmistakable, even though they do not wear their face-covering helmets.

The girls are armed with crude staves, clearly cut recently from the forest around their campsite. The campsite is now trampled beneath the soldiers' feet, but it is scattered with things: scrolls, parchment, blankets, and baskets of food. Their staves are knotted and their surface uneven, but they are fairly straight. The way they clutch them implies they know how to use them.

Compared to the pale skinned, dark eyed men that surround them, the girls are ghosts. Their skin is light, but slightly darker than the fire nation men. Their hair is a dark grey, not the graying of age, but the color of storm clouds gathering over head. But most striking are their eyes: a pale violet-grey, the color of clouds on the horizon just after sunset.

None of the men dare move against them; there is something intimidating about their foreign appearance even though they wear familiar fire nation peasant clothes: black pants and faded red tunics. The only thing they have in common with their attackers is their age – the entire group is in their mid-to-late twenties.

"What are you waiting for?" The superior officer barks again, and this time, the soldiers move. They dart inwards, closing the circle around the two women.

The girls raise their staves, as if to defend. Then a silent communication passes between them and they both stand down. The bottoms of their staves touch the ground, their shoulders slump, and those striking violet eyes stare at the ground.

The men tense, expecting some sort of a trick, and wait. Minutes tick by, and nothing. Cautiously, they approach the women, and cuff their wrists in cold black metal.

"You are under arrest for theft, and harassment of Fire Nation citizens."

**-----------------------------------**

_Meanwhile, at the South Pole_

"Sir, a letter for you." The young man hands the scroll off to his superior, turns and leaves.

The dark red seal means it can only be from the Fire Nation, and Sokka frowns at it. The Summit is still many months away: an emergency letter can only mean bad news. He frowns and sighs softly, hoping it is not about his sister.

"What does Zuko want?" Suki arches a curious brow; she knows that seal. She wears the soft blues and whites of the Water tribe and her face is unpainted. Her Kyoshi uniform is still carefully maintained in her home, but it is only ceremonial and a reminder of years past. The Kyoshi warriors are still trained back home, and she visits once a year with their son and daughter, but her home is at the South Pole.

They pace back and forth while watching a group of teenaged girls and boys practicing in the wide open snowy field. The teens are split into pairs, some work with melee weapons and boomerangs; others work with their water bending. Sokka and Suki are training the next generation of Southern Water Tribe warriors.

The practice area is large and blocked off by high walls of ice. The city is growing – after the war Hakoda began working to bring the scattered southern tribes back together once more. It is a long and slow process, but with each passing year the village has grown and long-separated tribes have been reunited.

Sokka doesn't respond, and stops pacing. He's opened the scroll and is slowly reading it. As he does so, he frowns even more.

"Well?" Suki turns and walks back to her husband.

"He wants us to meet in the Fire Nation, he says he's written to Toph as well, and he wants me to go find Katara first."

"Why? What's wrong?" Suki peeks over his shoulder and begins to read the letter herself. Her face falls and she sighs softly, "Oh."

"Boys and girls, that's enough for today! Remember to practice your stances!" Suki yells, and the teens stop their fighting and look at her. "You're all dismissed!" Slowly, the teens begin to disperse.

"I guess we'd better make plans and find someone to watch Takhi and Takoda."

"I'll meet you in the Fire Nation Suki, I have to find Katara first."

**-----------------------------------**

_Meanwhile, just outside the Fire Nation Capital_

"No no, like this!" Ty Lee grabs the young girl's legs and straightens them out. The girl is on her hands, walking upside down, along a tight rope that is only three feet off the ground. It's a practice rope for the young acrobats. Ty Lee adjusts her posture as she walks along side her. "If you let them bend too far forwards you'll either fall over, or hurt your back."

Around the famous acrobat a dozen children practice various moves. A few boys are doing splits, while across the gym a mixed group do cartwheels. The gym is wide and open, and piles of soft landing pads are scattered about, along with assorted acrobatic items: pins and balls for juggling, a few wooden saw horses, a tight rope with adjustable heights, and a safety net among them.

Ty Lee never even hears the soft footsteps of the Fire Lord and his right hand man until he touches her shoulder gently.

"Zuko!" She shrieks and jumps up to give him a hug. He has grown several inches since his teenaged years while Ty Lee remains about the same. Although he towers over her, she leaps up and throws her arms around his neck without a problem. He is forced to hold her about the waist so she doesn't slide downwards.

Both men laugh; Ty Lee always greets them the same, even though they each visit every few weeks. As soon as Zuko bends down and puts Ty Lee's feet on the floor she lets go and pounces on Daiyu with a hug as well.

"I see you're working them as hard as ever," Zuko chuckles softly. The school for training acrobats was all Ty Lee's idea. The circus settled down outside the royal city after the war, and is renowned as the best in the Fire Nation. As part of the effort to rejuvenate the culture of the Fire Nation, Ty Lee (with Zuko's support of course) opened the Acrobat Academy of the Fire Nation and began training the next generation.

Two children later, Ty Lee is not as flexible as she once was, but she can still bend in ways that 99 percent of the world's population can not.

"Of course!' She beams and steps back from her friends. "What brings you both here?" It is rare that both men can afford to be outside the capital at the same time – usually if one is gone the other must be dealing with the politics of leading a nation.

Zuko takes a deep breath; his gold eye flit away to the children and he watches them bend and tumble. Ty Lee frowns and sighs – she's seen him do this before and it means he has bad news to tell.

He leans in closely and speaks very softly, "The new Avatar was murdered."

And there it is, and there it was.

Ty Lee gasps sharply, her hand flies to her mouth and clamps over it. "No!" she manages to squeak out, shaking her head, "No!"

Zuko can only nod faintly. He is stoic; his face is calm. But his eyes are alight with grief and anger – that same violent, passionate anger that fueled him through his teenaged years.

"In a few weeks Sokka, Suki, Katara, and Toph will be here – I've sent them all word and asked them to come. I don't imagine that they'll say no. I want you at the meeting as well."

"You have a plan? Do you know who did it?" Ty Lee's brown eyes are wide and glistening with tears. She wipes frantically at her eyes, stopping them from ever falling.

"No, and no, but we will." His voice is full of stubborn determination, born from years of struggle.

"I'll let you know when they all get here," Zuko bends and hugs his younger friend again tightly. He doesn't have time to stay and chat, he rarely does. He's not the kind to speak much anyways, but Ty Lee is. She watches her friends leave, and turns her attention back to the acrobats in training, but her concentration is broken.

**-----------------------------------**

_A few days later, along the Southern Fire Nation shore_

The sound of the ocean lapping hungrily at the rocky shore is comforting and pleasant. It offers a calming background noise to the cacophony of the sounds of the shore meeting the sounds of the forest behind them.

The two women walk in silence, their wrists still cuffed together. Despite attempts by the soldiers to make them speak, the girls remain quiet. It bothers the 5 men; it is eerie and unnatural for prisoners not to speak at all.

Off along the horizon they can see the prison rig. It rises ominously from the dark ocean waters, a massive structure of metal that towers above the flat horizon. It is an unnatural anomaly standing out against the pale blue sky. A lazy whisp of smoke drifts from its stacks as the coal burns.

At last they stop. The shore is empty and deserted, there is no town here. But there is a rickety ancient metal dock, which juts out into the deeper water. The once-black metal is now spotted orange and red with rust, and washed white with salt from the sea. It squeaks and squeals in protest at the group of soldiers and their prisoners walk along it.

At the end is a mid-sized boat; like the pier it is metal and showing signs of its age. But it is seaworthy, and that is what matters. Still, the girls do not speak, but step calmly into the boat as they are told. The men have given up trying to make them speak, and so they ride in uncomfortable silence out to the prison rig.

The prison guards lower a metal ladder to the ship, and the soldiers shove the girls towards it. They climb carefully; with bound wrists it is hard, but they manage not to fall. Once on the rig, their shackles are removed.

"These are the two that were harassing Saijin Village. They haven't said a word since we arrested them without struggle. They're your problem now." The lead soldier shrugs and turns back. They descend the ladder to the boat, and speed away from the prison rig.

The Prison Warden leers at the two young women. They are shapely and athletic; a rarity on this rig. His deep laughter is comes from his pudgy belly as he leans in closely to them. "We'll make you work for your food here, no more free meals." There is something about the way he says the word "work" that implies some adjustments could be made from the normal manual labor of building machine parts.

The young women barely react at all. In fact they stand silently, returning his leer with cold glares. It sends a shiver down the Warden's spine, momentarily cracking his cocky attitude.

Suddenly the young women break into a sprint. One minute they are standing still, the next they are running, half way across the main platform of the rig. Guards begin to yell and chase, but the women are fast and picking up speed.

"You'll never get any where, you can't swim to shore from here!" The Warden shouts with dark laughter; it is not unusual for new prisoners to try and escape. It is an annoyance to have to fish their exhausted and almost-dead bodies from the sea though, several hundred yards from shore.

The women do not stop running, and instead pick up more speed. They leave the guards panting in the dust. As the near the end of the platform they leap – clearing the 10 foot wall without breaking stride. The air lifts them higher and higher, visibly swirling around their bodies as they streak towards shore.

"They're FLYING!" several guards shout. They reach the wall that marks the end of the platform moments after the girls. Open-mouthed, they can only stare at the girls zipping towards shore, the wind whistling behind them.

Below on the calm ocean is the boat of soldiers. One of them points skyward, mouth falling open in awe. The rest turn and see what he sees – the two women, almost to the mainland, and slowly receding into specks in the sky.

**-----------------------------------**

_A week and a half later, in the south eastern reaches of the Earth Kingdom, in a small village named Rakjin_

"Thank you so much. We couldn't have made it through the drought without you." The older woman bows deeply, before walking away. Her long hair was once black, but now is streaked and specked with grey. "Thank you." She is genuine and her eyes sparkle with tears of gratitude as she leaves.

"Do you have any idea how hard you are to find?"

The woman that the old lady had been thanking straightens up from packing her things. Her long mahogany brown hair is pulled back in a braid, she is an average height with the kind of curves that make men's hearts race. She exudes quiet confidence and power.

"It's not that hard, you can just follow the white fur trail." She shrugs.

Sokka rolls his eyes and embraces his sister tightly. "I've missed you Katara."

She smiles and hugs him back, "I've missed you too Sokka."

They part, and study each other for a minute. The water tribe siblings have grown a lot since the war ended. While Sokka is preparing to become leader of the Southern Tribes when their father steps down, Katara has taken up the mantle of the fallen Avatar. With Suki, Sokka has settled down into fatherhood, while Katara continues to traipse about the world.

Her freedom makes her old friends jealous. But there are things to be done, and they all have a role to play. They miss Katara, but her good deeds and ability to negotiate have helped them establish a stronger peace.

"So why are you here?" Katara is glad to see her brother, but she knows something is wrong. It is not time for another Elemental Summit Meeting, and he is hard pressed to get time away from the South Pole to come tracking her down. It has to be important.

Sokka steps closer and leans in. He whispers quickly, "We have a problem. The new avatar has been killed. Zuko wants us all at the palace in a few weeks."

The water bending master gasps and clamps her hand over her mouth. "Killed?!" She shakes her head in disbelief. Suddenly the memories of Aang's death come flooding back; it's happened all over again.

"Yes. Come on, with Appa we'll make it time and be there just as Toph and Suki arrive." He takes his sisters hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

-------

_Meanwhile, in the Fire Nation Palace_

"M'lord, we have heard some…odd reports, along the Southern Shore, near Saijin."

Zuko's brow arches with curiosity, but otherwise he gives no hint of interest. "Go on." Usually these reports are boring, just weekly updates on the goings on in his nation. Every now and then there is something special or interesting, but most of the time, they are false alarms. Some times, Zuko wishes something interesting would happen just for a change of pace.

"Well, a few weeks ago Saijin reported some thefts. There were rumors of a ghost or a spirit plaguing the town, but we assumed it was merely active imaginations. Our men picked up two young women not far from town with some of the stolen goods. They transported them to Prison Rig 3 off the coast. But…uh…" he pauses, trying not to stammer. His heart races with fear; no one wants to deliver bad news to the Fire Lord, even though this one is many times calmer and kinder than his predecessor. "Well, the girls were on the rig but then they escaped."

"Oh?" People don't just escape prison rigs, they sit far out at sea for a reason. Zuko's curiosity begins to rise.

"Yes sir. They escaped. According to the prison warden, his guards, and the soldiers who were in their boat returning to shore, the two women, uh, flew. They flew away, sir."

Zuko's golden eyes brighten and grow wide. "_They flew?"_ He is suddenly extremely interested.

"Yes sir. They flew. The men reported they were heading north by north east, Sir."

_There's only one kind of person who can fly,_ Zuko thinks, _but it can't be…_

"You're dismissed Captain. Thank you."


End file.
